It's been 50 years of intense work and success... but the learning and
creativity to bring dreams to life is never finished.

Ernesto Colnago

At the end of 2003, Cyclingnews sat down with Ernesto Colnago to discuss his
last half century of passion for 'le due ruote' in an exclusive one-on-one interview.
Generally considered the world's most accomplished bicycle builder, 71 year
old Ernesto Colnago is especially proud of the thousands of races won on his
bicycles since 1954.

As 1954 began half a century ago, 21 year old bicycle mechanic Colnago would
open his own "officina" (workshop) in Cambiago, Italy, just across
from the most popular trattoria in town, "Il du e vint". Like the
Wright Brothers half a century before him, Colnago's head was full of new ideas
he had developed from almost a decade of working in the Gloria bicycle factory
in nearby Milano, as well as racing all over Northern Italy. But since the airplane
was already invented, an ambitious young entrepreneur Colnago decided to strike
out on his own to focus on building top-level racing bicycles. For as 1954 began,
Italy's outlook was increasingly optimistic, although the economic and political
situation was still recovering from WW2 and government was unstable. The fate
of Trieste was a continued area of conflict with Yugoslavia and the far-eastern
area was finally given to Italy in a treaty in October. Alcide de Gasperi, Italy's
first post war premier died that year while RAI, Italy's state broadcasting
monopoly began regular television service in January.

The first ever Premio La Rinascente Compasso d'Oro Prize, the prestigious award
for Industrial design was awarded, among others, to Marco Nizzoli for his Olivetti
portable typewriter and Necchi sewing machine. 1954 was Gina Lollobrigida's
big year in Italian cinema, Fellini's Oscar-winning La Strada hit the silver
screen, while "commedia all'italiana" propelled actors like Alberto
Sordi to stardom. The Eurovision Song Contest started in 1954, as Claudio Villa
and Giorgio Consolini ruled the roost in Italian popular music.

Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio was the big wheel in auto racing, battling with
Italians Alberto Ascari, Umberto Maglioli, Guiseppe Farina and talented Brit
Mike Hawthorn for the F-1 drivers title. Inter Milan beat Juventus in the Italian
soccer league championship, while in the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, the
home side dealt Italy a humiliating defeat 2-1, sending the azzurri home in
the first round.

Legendary Italian rider Gino Bartali was on the wane. In his penultimate year
of racing, he was still debilitated from a car crash in late 1953 and his battles
with Fausto Coppi that had divided Italy in two were now just a memory. Fiorenzo
Magni presented the first non-bicycle sponsored pro cycling team, Nivea-Fuchs.
An unknown Italian-born Swiss rider Carlo Clerici managed to win the 37th edition
of the Giro d'Italia in '54 on a Guerra bicycle, 24'16" ahead of countryman
and Guerra team leader Hugo Koblet. During Stage 6 of the Giro, a hilly, winding
252km from Napoli to L'Aquila, Clerici and another rider got a 34-minute lead
and gregario Clerici won the stage, giving the unknown rider the Maglia Rosa!
'53 Giro winner Coppi was sick on Stage 6 with stomach problems and simply couldn't
do much to chase Clerici and defend his title that day.

The '54 Giro was the Giro of the infamous "Bernina Strike". After
Coppi had decisively won Friday's stage to Bolzano and pulled back some time
on Clerici, the tifosi were hoping for more action by Coppi on the penultimate
stage Saturday. But Fausto and the peloton took it extra-easy, climbing the
Bernina pass "piano", which was seen as scandalous to the media and
stunned tifosi. As the Giro finished in Milano on Sunday with a win by Van Steenbergen,
the angry tifosi whistled derisively at the racers. Coppi, who led the "strike",
lost a lot some popularity and was suspended for two months (later revoked).

Meanwhile, in Cambiago, Ernesto Colnago's officina started booming. Already
well know as an expert mechanic, Colnago assembled all kinds of cycles and had
learned how to build racing frames at Gloria. With Italy's post-war economy
growing, people had more discretionary income and a growing passion for bicycle
racing. So when local riders asked him to build racing bikes, Colnago's long
odyssey as a world-renowned artisan bicycle builder began.